Military and Veterans FAQs

Steps to apply for VA Ed Benefits

1. Go to gov
2. Under 'Explore VA benefits and health care' click on education and training
3. On the next page, scroll down and click 'How to apply for education benefits'
4. On the next page scroll down to 'How do I apply' and click 'Apply for education benefits'
5. Applicants will be prompted to answer 4 questions - each appearing after answering the previous
6. Click on “Apply Now” 
7. After gathering the requested information, click 'Sign in to start your application'
8. There are several options to sign in - gov, Id.meor DS logon. If applicants do not have one of these accounts, create an account.
9. Continue completing the required information
10. At the end, click on ‘submit.’ It generally takes the VA about 30 days to process the application. 
11. If assistance is required, contact the Military & Veterans Center at military@kckcc.eduor call 913-288-7591.

The VA generally takes around 30 days to process an application. If students are approved for the benefit, they will receive a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) from the VA in the mail. For updates on processing times, contact the VA directly at 1-888-442-4551.

Every semester students want to use their VA Educational Benefits at KCKCC, they will need to complete the Veterans Benefits Request Form after enrolling in classes. The form generates an email that is sent to the Veteran Certifying Specialist (VCS), who will then conduct a degree audit to ensure all the selected classes are required for the specified degree. If there are no issues, the VCS will submit the certification to the VA. If there are issues, the VCS will contact the student through his/her school email account.

Regardless of when changes are made, all adds, drops and withdrawals MUST be reported to the KCKCC VCS immediately. Depending on when students drop/withdraw from a course, they may owe money back to the VA. KCKCC encourages students to speak with a VCS before they make any schedule changes to see how this will affect their benefits.

If students have already been certified for the term, they should not change their major until the end of the term. Please contact the Military & Veterans Center with questions. Anytime students are changing their major, they will need to contact the Military & Veterans Center. The VCS changes the major with the VA.

Regular and Partial Payments

Once the VA has processed certification, payments are made around the first of each month for the prior month's attendance. For example, students would receive a payment in September for attendance during the month of August. Payments are made based on the number of days students were enrolled in classes for the previous month. If classes started on Aug. 22, they would be paid September 1 for 10 days, not the entire month. 

*Please note that under the following circumstances, students may receive only a partial payment. If students drop/add a course (s) and it affects the overall training time, students will be paid at the new training time rate. Based on when courses were dropped/added, payments may not reflect the change until the following month. 

If students fail a course or receive an unsatisfactory grade (i.e. did not make the grade required by the academic department for degree credit), they may retake the course and receive VA Educational Benefits for the same course as needed. Courses that are successfully completed may not be certified for VA purposes if they are repeated. VA will not pay benefits to repeat courses to enhance a student’s GPA therefore all other duplications cannot be certified. Please note that the VA will not pay for any associated Repeated Course Fees.

If students fail a course and the instructor has reported a last date of attendance (last date your logged on, attended, turned in work, etc.) that information will need to be reported to the VA. A debt will be incurred back to that last date of attendance and possibly back to the beginning of the term. The VA will calculate the debt against any stipend, housing allowance and tuition and fees (if applicable).  If students are receiving CH 33 - Post 9/11, any tuition and fees paid to the school will be adjusted and they will also incur a debt with the school.

If students enroll a class and it is later determined that the class transferred to KCKCC counts as that class, the VCS is required to adjust the certification that was submitted to reflect this. This may result in the VA sending a debt letter to the student for the class and possibly for BAH payment.

To ensure students are paying the military rate (in-state), send the Military & Veterans Center a copy of the DD214 (Member copy 4) or a copy of the COE. Spouses and dependents can also send a copy of the service member’s DD214 with a copy of their driver’s licenses or a copy of their DEERS document.  For assistance contact the Military & Veterans Center at military@kckcc.edu or 913-288-7591.